Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 11, 2009). "Department of American Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 142-157).

The trade in human beings, or Trafficking in Persons (TiP) is global and affecting every country. In the last years, increasing attention has been paid to TiP for the purpose of sexual exploitation. This led to a growing need to tackle this phenomenon. Only recently, the relationship between TiP and armed conflict has been acknowledged but remains under-studied. Cameron and Newman (2008) have outlined a framework in which structural factors linked to proximate factors could have explanatory value on the relationship between armed conflict and TiP. This thesis analyzes two cases of armed conflict, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sierra Leone, attempting to explain the increase in TiP of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation by applying this theoretical framework. In this qualitative research a comparative method is used in applying the framework to two case studies, aiming to identify the explanatory value of Cameron and Newman’s (2008) framework. It is found that the general explanatory value of the framework is high and the proximate factors can be classified as: a fully explanatory proximate factor, case dependent proximate factors, and conflict-phase proximate factors. In addition, this thesis is identifying some elements that could influence TiP of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation during conflict and post-conflict that could be of added value to this framework, namely: the implementation of government strategies, corruption of non-government officials, economic deterioration as a consequence of migration, and involvement of peacekeepers and members of the international community in TiP of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

I have produced two distinct bodies of work, landscapes and portraits. In both, I investigate my relationship to the subject. My role as the photographer fluctuates between the time I spend by myself and the time I spend with others. The landscape series promotes the act of looking and obscures my presence as photographer. Responding to the saturation of images in the media today, I hope to recalibrate viewers to a slower pace. I look for spaces at the edge of a controlled wilderness that are still accessible to the general public and mimic the identity of my childhood home in Northern California. Both color and black and white photographs sentimentalize manicured nature in ordinary locations. These landscapes facilitate reflection through consideration of similarities and differences. In doing so, these locations lose their specificity and approach a generalized sense of the sacred. The second body of work is a series of photographic collaborations I make with my autistic friend, Will Johns. He selects the subject matter and operates the light meter. His autism informs his methods, which then affects my methods. His idiosyncratic choices force me to photograph subject matter I wouldn’t be drawn to and compose in a new way where I must consider Will as author, subject and subject matter. In these images Will stands with the light meter, his posture gaze and facial expressions explicitly make reference to our relationship and reveal the complexity in separating subject matter from subject and the difficulties artists face with issues of exploitation and authorship. / text

Nearshore populations have been depleted and some have not yet recovered. Therefore, theoretical studies focus on improving fisheries management and designing marine protected areas (MPAs). Depleted populations may be undergoing an Allee effect, i.e. a decrease in fitness at low densities. Here, I constructed a marine metapopulation model that included pre- and post-dispersal Allee effects using a network theory approach. Networks represent metapopulations as groups of nodes connected by dispersal paths. With this model I answered four questions: What is the role of Allee effects on habitat occupancy? Are MPAs effective in recovering exploited populations? What is the importance of larval dispersal patterns in preventing local extinctions due to exploitation and Allee effects? Can exploitation fragment nearshore metapopulations? When weak Allee effects are included, habitat occupancy drops as larval retention decreases because more larvae are lost to unsuitable habitat. With strong Allee effects habitat occupancy also drops at high larval retention because more larvae are needed to overcome the Allee effect. Post-dispersal Allee effects seem more detrimental for nearshore metapopulations. MPA effectiveness seems also lower in a post-dispersal Allee effect scenario. In overexploited systems, local populations that go extinct are also less likely to recover even after protecting the whole coastline. In exploited nearshore metapopulations with Allee effects, local occupancy or the recovery of local populations depends not only on larval inflow from neighbor populations, but also on larval inflow for these neighbors. Nearshore metapopulations with intense fishing mortality and Allee effects may also suffer a decrease in dispersal strength and fragmentation. Population fragmentation occurs when large populations are split into smaller groups. A tool for detecting partitioning in a network is modularity. The modularity analysis performed for red abalone in the Southern California Bight showed that exploitation increases partitioning through time before the entire metapopulation collapses. These findings call for research effort in estimating the strength of potential Allee effects to prevent stock collapse and assess MPA effectiveness, evaluating the predictability of local occupancy by centrality metrics to help identify important sites for conservation, and using modularity analysis to quantify the health of exploited metapopulations to prevent their collapse. / text

Cette recherche vise à faire le portrait du Marché de solidarité de l'Estrie, un organisme à but non lucratif ayant pour mission l'approvisionnement alimentaire local et écologique de sa région. Se situant dans la mouvance des systèmes locaux alimentaires, cette initiative se veut une alternative face aux problématiques socio-économiques et environnementales retrouvées dans le secteur agroalimentaire. Cette recherche se situe dans une optique de documentation des initiatives du genre expérimentées en Amérique du Nord, particulièrement aux États-Unis (Hinrichs, 2002). Elle vise à soutenir les groupes sociaux afin de les accompagner dans leurs démarches d'innovation sociale. De manière plus spécifique, nous cherchons à répondre au questionnement suivant : quels sont les impacts du Marché de solidarité auprès des producteurs impliqués? Cette recherche qualitative est effectuée principalement à partir d'entrevues semi-dirigées effectuées auprès de onze producteurs impliqués avec le Marché. Les réflexions dégagées à partir de ces données nous permettent par la suite d'identifier les forces et faiblesses du Marché de solidarité de manière à cerner l'envergure générale des circuits courts agroalimentaires au Québec. Les résultats de cette recherche nous permettent de constater que le Marché de solidarité offre aux producteurs y étant impliqués un cadre convivial qui facilite les liens interpersonnels. À ce titre, la fierté de s'impliquer pour le développement local et le sentiment de reconnaissance sont des éléments fortement présents chez les producteurs rencontrés. Le Marché a cependant moins d'impact en ce qui a trait aux changements des pratiques et perceptions environnementales des producteurs. Au niveau économique, nous constatons que ce sont surtout les producteurs faisant majoritairement affaire avec les circuits courts agroalimentaires qui tirent un avantage commercial intéressant du Marché. À la lumière des motivations et impacts présents chez ces producteurs, nous dégageons une typologie de ces derniers en fonction de l'importance mise sur des éléments éthiques ou commerciaux dans leurs discours. Nous constatons ainsi que les acteurs qui mettent un accent plus grand sur des valeurs de convivialité sont ceux qui contribuent de manière plus élevée au potentiel de développement local et de revitalisation écologique des systèmes locaux alimentaires. Afin d'actualiser sa mission d'autonomie alimentaire régionale, le Marché devra cependant réfléchir à la consolidation de sa force économique tout en préservant ses valeurs de base. Cela pourra se conjuguer au renforcement de certaines alliances régionales lui permettant de faciliter le rayonnement de ses valeurs socio-environnementales et socioéconomiques afin de participer à la construction de systèmes locaux alimentaires viables. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Système local alimentaire, circuit court, développement local, convivialité, revitalisation écologique, agro-environnement, socio-économique, socio-environnemental

Le secteur forestier québécois traverse actuellement une des pires crises de son histoire. Bien que les causes structurelles et conjoncturelles attribuables à cette situation soient nombreuses et fassent l'objet de vives spéculations entre différents groupes d'initiés, les causes sous-jacentes de cette crise (soit les facteurs sociaux, politiques et économiques) suscitent étonnamment peu d'intérêts. De plus, alors que l'origine de la présente situation est la plupart du temps attribuée à la refonte du régime forestier de 1986, l'examen exhaustif de l'évolution des institutions de gouvernance forestière depuis le début du 19e siècle indique que les problèmes de ce secteur ne sont pas nouveaux. Les défis qui touchent l'industrie forestière aujourd'hui découlent d'un ensemble de problématiques récurrentes et historiques, mais dont les effets ont toujours pu être tempérés par des manipulations structurelles peu coûteuses, par des développements technologiques ou simplement par l'abondance même des stocks de ressources dont bénéficiait naguère le Québec. Or, si la crise actuelle résulte de défaillances qui sont à la fois chroniques et systémiques, quelle est la structure du dilemme qui amenuise systématiquement la capacité des acteurs sociaux, politiques et économiques à entreprendre les actions collectives qui s'imposent? La caractérisation historique du régime forestier, depuis ses origines jusqu'aujourd'hui, suggère que la rigidité constitutionnelle de la gouvernance forestière de même que la structure centralisée de l'arène des choix collectifs seraient en grande partie responsables des crises qui se sont succédé et des difficultés qu'éprouvent les acteurs concernés à résoudre conjointement les problèmes engendrés par l'exploitation forestière. Par le biais d'une analyse historique, basée sur le cadre d'analyse et de développement institutionnel (IAD - Institutional Analysis and Development Framework), nous traçons le développement conjoint des institutions constitutionnelles et de gouvernance forestières depuis le début du régime anglais en 1763 jusqu'à 1986. L'étude s'appuie sur une approche qualitative comparée des documents d'archives publiques issus de cinq périodes de l'histoire du Québec, choisie en fonction des changements institutionnels survenus durant ces périodes et les problématiques propres à chacune de ces périodes : (1) le système colonial 1763-1839, (2) le Canada Uni 1840-1866, (3) le Québec souverain préindustriel 1867-1906, (4) Le Québec à l'ère des papetières 1907-1950, et (5) le Québec suivant la Révolution tranquille 1960-1986. Le cadre théorique est issu des traditions du Choix public et l'Institutionnalisme rationnel. Le suivi des processus de causalité (process tracing) et la juxtaposition des données empiriques au cadre théorique ont été utilisés pour assurer une plus grande rigueur méthodologique et augmenter notre confiance envers les résultats obtenus. L'évaluation de données empiriques soutient l'existence d'un lien probant entre l'évolution des institutions de gouvernance forestière du Québec et les intérêts des divers gouvernements qui se sont succédé. L'analyse historique de l'exploitation des forêts québécoises montre comment le droit constitutionnel exclusif détenu par le conseil exécutif du gouvernement du Québec et l'absence de contraintes efficaces sur le processus décisionnel de ce dernier ont été systématiquement employés à des fins politiques et économiques, et ce, au détriment de solutions connues pour une meilleure gestion des ressources ligneuses pour l'intérêt commun. Étant la seule entité responsable de la gestion des ressources naturelles sur le territoire public, cette thèse établit que les gouvernements qui se sont succédé au fil du temps ont exercé une influence décisive sur l'évolution des institutions de gouvernances forestières, en affectant la sélection et la réplication des idées, des valeurs et des intérêts qui ont défini le rapport des Québécois à la forêt depuis plus près de deux siècles. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Gouvernance, institutions, constitution, évolution, actions collectives

Essay 1: Traffic research shares a fundamental dilemma with other areas of empirical research in which humans are potentially put at risk. Research is justified because it can improve safety in the long run. Nevertheless, people can be harmed in the research situation. Hence, we need to balance short-term risks against long-term safety improvements, much as in other areas of research with human subjects. In this paper we focus on ethical issues that arise when human beings are directly affected in the performance of research by examining how the ethical requirements in biomedical research can inform traffic research. After introducing the basic ethical requirements on biomedical research, each of the major requirements is discussed in relation to traffic research. We identify the main areas where biomedical research and traffic research differ, and where the ethical requirements from the former cannot easily be transferred to the latter. We then point to some of the issues that need to be addressed for a systematic approach to the ethics of traffic research. Essay 2: The requirement of always obtaining participants’ informed consent in research with human subjects cannot always be met, for a variety of reasons. In this paper, research situations where informed consent is unobtainable are described and categorised. Some of these kinds of situations, common in biomedicine and psychology, have been previously much discussed, whereas others, more prevalent in for example infrastructure research, introduce new perspectives. The advancement of new technology may lead to an increase in research of these kinds. The paper also provides a review of methods intended to compensate for a lack of consent and their applicability and usefulness for the different categories of situations are discussed, thereby providing insights into one important aspect of relevance for the question of permitting research without informed consent: how well that which informed consent is meant to safeguard can be achieved by other means. Essay 3: This paper starts with the assumption that it is morally problematic when people in need are offered money in exchange for research participation if the amount offered is unfair. Such offers are called “coercive”, and the degree of coerciveness is said to be determined by the offer’s potential to cause exploitation and its irresistibility. Depending on what view we take on the possibility to compensate for the sacrifices made by research participants, a wish to avoid “coercive offers” leads to policy recommendations concerning payment for participation. For sacrifices considered compensable we ought to offer either no payment or payment at a level deemed fair, while for sacrifices deemed incompensable we always ought to offer no payment. Essay 4: It is commonly thought that transactions that are the result of voluntary gift-giving do not constitute exploitation. This paper argues that exploitation is indeed possible in such situations, by showing how gift-giving can fulfil the two commonly proposed criteria for exploitation, namely that in an interaction between two persons one receives disproportionally little and the other disproportionally much of the resulting benefits, and that this disproportion is caused by the latter making inappropriate use of a disadvantage of the former. A theoretical approach to what such inappropriate use would amount to in cases of gift-giving is lacking. The paper therefore aims at spelling out such an approach. The method of reflective equilibrium inspires this endeavour, which proceeds by testing intuitions about examples that embody a set of possible conditions. It is concluded that three of the conditions are necessary for exploitation of gift-giving, namely (1) the giver incurs a loss, (2) the recipient has aimed for the gift, and (3) the gift is undeserved. / <p>QC 20140407</p>

Hotel and restaurant industry have always been seen as an industry with low status and poorworking conditions. Low wages, temporary contracts, illegal work, and sexual harassment are the rule rather than the exception when the employee’s working conditions discusses. By using the right dogmatic approach together with a social science perspective the purpose of the study has been answered. The purpose has been to contribute to a greater understanding of how it is that the hotel and restaurant industry’s poor working conditions can be maintained, the extent to which the working conditions of the employees is ensured and why mostly young people, women and people with foreign backgrounds are employed in the industry. Among people with a foreign background also includes third country nationals who come to Sweden to work. Because the hotel and restaurant industry serves as a steppingstone into the labour market it employs both young people with Swedish background as young people with foreign background. The industry has employed women for a long time and expectations of how staff within the profession should look like has led to it is common that women are employed in the industry. Because of rouge entrepreneurs who, for their own personal gain, indulged in financial crime, illegal work, fiddling with staff ledge and high incidence of temporary contracts, the poor working conditions in the industry successfully have been maintained. The injustices of the industry have over time become a kind of norm and because of this, the labour exploitation continues. The low degree of organization restricts HRFs opportunities to control the collective agreements and it tends to be the authorities who have the greatest responsibility to ensure that employees work on reasonable terms. The problems also become even greater when third-country nationals’ rights and working conditions should be checked. This is because Sweden has not ratified several important conventions about third country nationals labour conditions while statutory regulation opened up for employers to employ third country nationals. Ensuring working conditions are also affected by the individual employees’ tendency to report injustice, an example is sexual harassment from outsiders persons. In summary, conclusion is drawn that ensuring the working conditions in hotel and restaurant industry is problematized by employees’ unwillingness or fear to take action andauthorities, often inadequate, control possibilities.

How to exploit and make use of natural gas hydrates in oceans will weigh much in the future researches. Unlike the oil or gas reservoirs, the distributions of natural gas hydrate are very complicated and don’t congregate massively in oceanic sediments. Besides, factors such as seafloor geohazards and climate must be taken into account, which makes it much more difficult and complicated to exploit oceanic gas hydrates than conventional oil or gas. Nowadays neither of such methods as thermal stimulation, depressurization, inhibitor injection, carbon dioxide replacement and mixing exploitation etc. is applied to exploit gas hydrates in marine sediments because of their disadvantages. This paper introduces a conception of combining solar and geothermal energy for gas hydrates exploitation. The model mainly includes five parts: solar energy transferring module, sea water circulating module, underground boiler module, platform and gas-liquid separating module. Solar cells and electric heaters are used to heat the formations containing hydrates. Because they become relatively more mature and cheaper, it’s the key of how to utilize the geothermy to exchange heat in developing this conception, which needs solution of fluid leakage, circulating passages and heat-exchange interface problems in building underground boiler. Probably it’s a feasible measure to use an effective hydraulic control system and hydraulic fracturing. The idea should be a good choice to exploit marine gas hydrates by combining solar and geothermal energy since this method has a great advantage either in terms of efficiency or cost.

The inhibitor and steam injection methods have been examined using a laboratory-prepared methane hydrate bearing sediment. New experimental apparatuses have been designed and constructed. In the case of inhibitor injection, the measurement of gas production vs. time suggested that the inhibitor increased dissociation rate. Core temperature decreased upon the inhibitor injection, in contrast to that in the case of pure water injection. The observed pressure differentials between the inlet and outlet of the core sample suggest that the inhibitor effectively prevented the hydrate reformation within the dissociating core sample. In the case of steam injection coupled with depressurization, it can be seen that the effect of steam (or hot water) injection was clear in the later stage of dissociation, compared with that in the case of depressurization alone. The inner (core) temperature change indicates that the coupling of depressurization and steam injection induces MH dissociation from upstream and downstream to the center of the sample. However, it starts from an upstream region and continues downstream steadily in the case of steam (hot water) injection alone.